Li-ion battery maker envisions multiple U.S. factories

10-Jan-2009 07:04 EST

A123Systems, a Massachusetts maker of lithium-ion batteries, plans to build its first U.S. plant in southeastern Michigan. In a Jan. 7 press release, the company said it has applied for $1.84 billion in direct loans from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program for multiple U.S. plants. Total capacity of its U.S. plants would be enough to supply Li-ion batteries for 5 million hybrid electric vehicles or a half million plug-in electric vehicles per year by 2013. The company was born out of the research labs of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was founded in 2001 on a $100,000 grant from the DOE.

After three years of co-developing a new-generation fuel cell stack aimed at light vehicles, military, aerospace and other applications, Honda and GM have announced the establishment of Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC—the industry’s first joint venture for fuel-cell production.